American Airlines and Qantas Airways plan to significantly expand their joint business by adding new service between the U.S. and Australia.

American Qantas Crews on 77W

New routes between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Sydney Airport (SYD), operated by American Airlines, and between San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and SYD, operated by Qantas, will provide customers with expanded options when traveling between the two regions.

Through this enhanced alliance, American will begin operating a daily, nonstop flight between LAX and SYD on Dec. 17, 2015, further strengthening its global network and its world-class LAX hub. Beginning Dec. 20, 2015 Qantas will begin operating service between SYD and SFO, expanding the airlines’ joint network to another key market for business and leisure customers. Services will initially operate on peak days and ramp up to six times per week in January 2016. Pending regulatory approvals, this expansion represents the natural evolution of the collaboration between American and Qantas, with revenue-sharing and other agreements that provide the airlines with a platform for closer commercial ties and an even more seamless customer experience on routes between North America and Australia/New Zealand. The closer and more integrated relationship also provides opportunities for future growth into trans-Pacific markets not currently served by either airline, such as New Zealand.

“Qantas has been a fantastic partner through oneworld and our joint business relationship, and strengthening those ties has provided us with a solid foundation to introduce American-operated flights into the Australian region,” said Doug Parker, chairman and CEO of American Airlines. “Our customers have asked us to expand to important business destinations across the Pacific, and flying our flagship aircraft, the Boeing 777-300ER, to Sydney will provide another world-class travel experience from our key gateway at LAX.”

“For over 20 years, we’ve worked in partnership with American to give our customers the best network on both sides of the Pacific,” said Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas Group. “We are excited to take the alliance to a new level and expand our services to new destinations including San Francisco – Australia’s biggest unserved direct corporate destination. We are seeing strong growth in numbers of visitors to Australia and look forward to carrying more travellers from the U.S. across our extensive domestic and international network in the South Pacific.”

Through their joint business, American and Qantas provide increased connectivity to destinations beyond their key gateways. Customers traveling from Australia can access more than 150 destinations throughout North America on American’s extensive network from Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles and San Francisco. This includes transcontinental service to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) from LAX and SFO on the only true three-class aircraft flying those routes, the Airbus A321T. From LAX, customers can connect on to more than 50 destinations. American has added service to seven new destinations from its LAX hub over the past year, including Atlanta, Belize, Edmonton, Guadalajara, San Antonio, Tampa and Vancouver.

Customers traveling from North America have access to nearly 60 additional destinations throughout Australia and New Zealand when connecting from Qantas trans-Pacific routes from Sydney.

American’s new service between Los Angeles and Sydney will be operated with the state-of-the-art, three-class Boeing 777-300ER. The aircraft features all-aisle access, fully lie-flat seats and a walk-up bar in the premium cabins; Main Cabin Extra seating provides more legroom; and all seats feature personal, in-seat entertainment screens with up to 250 movies, over 180 TV programs and more than 350 audio selections, international Wi-Fi capability and universal AC power outlets and USB ports.

Qantas will operate its service between Sydney and San Francisco with a reconfigured Boeing 747-400 that has the same style interiors found on its flagship Airbus A380 aircraft. It features the award-winning, fully-flat Skybed designed by Marc Newson in Business Class, custom-designed seats with ergonomic cushioning in Economy Class and the latest inflight technology with large in-seat screens in every cabin offering more than 1,500 entertainment options. Qantas’ SYD-LAX route will continue to operate with the A380.